


Stay

by drivingmishcrazy



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:02:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22639723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drivingmishcrazy/pseuds/drivingmishcrazy
Summary: Set after “Dorado Falls” 7x03Emily hasn’t been able to get Derek Morgan out of her mind for the past seven months.
Relationships: Derek Morgan/Emily Prentiss
Kudos: 37





	Stay

_ “Emily, I thought I lost you and I blamed myself...I don’t want to be worried about losing you again and get distracted...it was seven months of hell…” _

The words sounded over and over and over again in Emily’s head from the moment she’d heard them spoken. She had known that Derek had gone through a difficult time after Doyle, when she had first walked back into the conference room, he’d stared at her like he had seen a ghost. For her part, Emily had lived with his final words to her in her head for seven months, unsure if she would ever get to see Derek Morgan again. Now she was around him every single day, and he was so afraid of losing her again that he needed the added reassurance of extra training, which Emily had readily agreed to. They had already met a few times for training already, as recently as that morning, but with every session, Emily found it increasingly difficult to get Derek out of her head. She’d been distracted at the shooting range, and he had called her on it.

_ “What’s with you, Prentiss?” Derek asked. “You never miss a shot. You going soft on me?” _

_ “No.” Emily laughed. “Sorry, I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, I guess I’m just a little distracted.” _

_ Derek frowned. “Everything okay?” _

_ “Yeah.” She said. “Yeah, I’m fine. I just need to get out of my head. It’s a process, you know?” _

_ “I do.” He said. “Maybe even more than you realize.” _

_ “Right.” She said, staring at her feet. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that you...You told me how much…” _

_ “Easy, princess.” Derek said. “I’m just saying I get it. You know, and if you need to talk to someone who gets it, I’m here when you’re ready.” _

Emily turned over in bed and brushed tears from her cheek. That had been happening a lot lately. It wasn’t just the nightmares, or reliving her brush with death. It was the months of loneliness when memories had been all she had. She had replayed them over and over again in her head, with everyone, but she came back to her memories with Derek more than she cared to admit. One moment in particular had played in her mind over and over again. It had been after a particularly rough case, she and Morgan had started drinking and decided to play two truths and a lie. What had started as innocent fun had quickly spiraled out of control when the truth became less lighthearted.

_ “Okay.” Emily said. “I have never dated anyone who was left-handed, I’m allergic to coconut, and I once went as Boy George for Halloween. Which one is the lie, Morgan?” _

_ “Well, let me see.” He said. “I know for a  _ fact  _ that the coconut thing is true after Garcia put fresh coconut in her piña coladas and you started breaking out in hives and projectile vomiting. It  _ could  _ be the Boy George thing, but that sounds too much like something you would do. So I think it’s that you’ve never dated anyone left-handed. I don’t even know how that would be possible unless you actively avoided it.” _

_ Emily grinned. “You caught me.” She said. “Okay, your turn. And make it good this time! No more of those cop-out truths, I want something juicy.” _

_ “Woman,” He said. “You just want blackmail material!” _

_ “You can’t prove that.” She said. “Come on, go!” _

_ “Okay, okay.” Derek said. “Let me see...My first real girlfriend was Jewish, I’ve never had a cavity, and I had a major crush on you when you first joined the BAU.” _

_ “Oh come  _ on _ , Morgan.” Emily said, rolling her eyes toward the heavens. “We both  _ know  _ that the last one is a lie. God, you suck at this game.” _

_ “Actually,” Derek said. “I’ve never dated a Jewish girl before in my life.” _

_ Emily paused. Her cheeks went red. “What?” _

_ “You really didn’t know?” He asked. “Emily, we’re profilers. I figured you knew and you just weren’t interested so I never acted on it.” _

_ “Wow.” Emily said. “No, I had no idea. Honest.” _

_ “That day you spilled coffee on yourself.” Derek explained. “And you told me how you scared off your date with a Vonnegut reference, I don’t think I had ever wanted to kiss someone as badly as I wanted to kiss you then. And it only got worse from there, I mean I was  _ goofy  _ for you for the longest time.” _

_ “You should have.” _

_ Derek raised an eyebrow. “Should have what?” _

_ “Kissed me.” She said. “Or made a move, anyway. I had a crush on you too, you know.” _

_ “You did?” Derek said. “You’re not just messing with me, right princess?” _

_ “Scouts honor.” Emily said, holding up her hand. “I had a  _ huge _ crush on you, it was embarrassing actually.” _

_ “Okay.” He said. “Well then, how come  _ you  _ never made a move on me? It goes both ways.” _

_ “I didn’t think I was your type.” She said. “And I wasn’t interested in being a conquest.” _

_ “You wouldn’t have been.” He said. “You, Emily Prentiss, are so much more than just one-night stand material. Don’t sell yourself short.” _

_ “Right.” She said. “So, we good?” _

_ “Yeah, princess.” Derek said. “We’re good.” _

Emily finally gave up and swung her feet over the side of the bed, the hardwood floor chilly against the soles of her feet. She didn’t know what possessed her to put on tennis shoes and pull an old Yale sweatshirt on over her pajamas, but Emily found herself doing just that before grabbing her keys and driving the distance to Derek’s apartment. It felt like she blinked and suddenly she was banging on his door at two in the morning. Minutes passed and Emily nearly came to her senses. Maybe he was asleep, maybe he wasn’t alone. Emily was already walking down the hall, kicking herself inside for bothering him at this hour, when the door opened behind her and Derek stepped out, clad in only a pair of gray sweatpants.

“You playing ding dong ditch on me, princess?”

Emily turned around, smiling guiltily.

“Not on purpose.” She said. “I didn’t mean to wake you, Morgan. I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t mean to wake me.” Derek said, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorframe. “Which is why you were banging on my door at two AM?”

“I’m sorry.” She said. “I don’t know why I came here, I just, I couldn’t sleep and I just didn’t know who else to try and talk to about it. I should just-“

“Whoa, now hold on.” He said. “Emily, when I said I was here if you wanted to talk, I meant it. Day or night. You don’t have to apologize to me. Now get your cute little butt in here before the neighbors file a noise complaint on us.”

“Wouldn’t be the first time.” Emily muttered as she followed him in.

Derek’s place hadn’t changed much since the last time she had been there. He handed her a beer and took one for himself, remembering, no doubt, what she had said about quitting caffeine but realizing that she was going to need something stronger than tea. They sat in silence for a good long while, Emily just staring down at her hands and Derek waiting patiently for her.

“It wasn’t easy for me, either.” She said. “Those seven months away. I know it was different for you guys, you thought I was dead, but…”

Emily stopped, and when she looked up at Derek, tears were shimmering in her eyes. Pain was etched into every inch of her face. She took a shaky breath.

“I felt so alone.” She continued. “And the only way I got through it was by keeping memories close and playing them over and over in my head, and now I’m back and I don’t know what to do with myself.”

“I get it.” He said. “I’ve kind of been feeling the same way, lately. What’s been bugging you?”

“Remember when we got really drunk and played two truths and a lie?” She said. “For some reason I think about that one all the time.”

Derek chuckled. “You mean the night I found out I had missed my chance with the most beautiful woman I had ever met?” He said. “How could I forget?”

“You mean the night  _ I  _ realized.” Emily said. “That I had been too chicken to take a shot with this guy I really liked and missed  _ my  _ chance.”

“Sure, princess.” Derek said. “What about it?” 

Emily shook her head. “I don’t know.” She said. “It got me through seven months but since I got back… I can’t get you out of my head.”

“Emily…” Derek said. “What are you saying?”

Emily closed her eyes, willing her tears not to fall even as they escaped down her cheeks. 

“I never stopped thinking about you.” She said. “For months, all I heard in my sleep were the words you said to me in that warehouse and as much as it hurt to be away from everyone else, being away from you broke my heart the most.”

Derek chuckled and grabbed her hand, lacing her fingers through his own and squeezing tightly.

“Have you ever heard,” He asked. “Of twin flames?”

Emily shook her head. “What is that?”

“Most people believe that it’s just another word for soulmate.” Derek said. “It’s not. Hell, sometimes it doesn’t have to be romantic at all but it’s...it’s like if one soul was split into two bodies, and every other connection just pales in comparison. You feel like you’ve known each other all your lives and without them, you feel lost. They don’t just complete you, they push you to be better.”

“Oh.” Emily said as what Derek was saying finally dawned on her. “So like, when you meet them, you get that weird feeling that you’ve met before?”

“Sometimes.” Derek said. “It’s familiar and powerful and sometimes overwhelming. But when you’re with them, it feels like you’re home.”

“And you don’t feel right without them.”

“Exactly.” Derek said. “Look, Emily, I don’t know what to call this thing we’ve got between us, all I know is that for seven months, I haven’t felt right. And now you’re back and I can’t get you out of my head any more than you can get me out of yours.”

“Yeah.” Emily said quietly. “So what do we do?”

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “What do you  _ want  _ to do?”

Emily took a deep breath. “When I look at you,” She said. “I feel like I’m home. I don’t want to lose that. I lost it once already.”

“So let’s see where it goes.” He said. “Because I don’t wanna lose that feeling again either.” 

He stopped and shook his head. “No.” Derek said. “I don’t want to lose  _ you  _ again.”

Emily smiled. “I don’t want to lose you either.” She said. “Do you want to kiss me?”

Derek grinned. “I thought you’d never ask, princess.”

  
  


All of the times she had imagined kissing Derek, Emily had envisioned it as this hot, needy act of desperation and lust. In reality, it was soft and sweet, it was almost as if he was afraid of scaring her off by being too aggressive. It was a gentle give and take, a parting of lips and meeting of tongues, but there was a heat behind it too, a slow burn that, if tended to, could eventually set the whole world ablaze.

“Stay.” He murmured against her lips. “Tonight. We don’t have to...I just need to be close to you, Emily.”

“I’ll stay.” She said. 

Emily fell asleep in his arms and in the morning, she stayed. A year later when she got the offer to go back to Interpol, she considered it for half a moment but when she looked into Derek’s eyes, she knew she was going to stay. Six months after that, with all of her stuff in boxes in the living room, she decided to stay for good. Emily Prentiss, the woman who never stayed in one place too long and always ran, decided to stay for good. She was home.


End file.
